Relapse prevention for smoking cessation: testing explicit and implicit regulation processes

BACKGROUND: Only 5-15 % of all smoking cessation attempts are successful. The fallback into smoking after a quit attempt is called a lapse if it occurs once, and a relapse if a persons takes up the former smoking habit again. In this study we aim at analyzing the importance of concepts within health psychology that have not been explored fully to understand and change the process of relapse: a. action planning and b. implicit cognitions. Action planning refers to the process of goal setting. Implicit cognitions refer to unconscious conditioned processes. STUDY 1: consists of study among experts (N=50) to obtain their ideas with regard to the importance of these two concepts, since little work has been done fusing these concepts for explaining relapse prevention. STUDY 2: consists of following a group of daily smokers in their cessation and relapse process analyzing the challenges quitters encounter when quitting using group methods (N=50), or quitting individually (N=50). Additionally we will obtain Internet-based Electronic Diaries in a subsample (N=30). STUDY 3: a RCT with 3 arms (N=525) will compare the effects of general action planning and interactive action planning and compare these results with a control group at 6 and 12 months after the pretest. Self-reports will be validated. STUDY 4: a RCT with 2 arms (N=350) will test the impact attentional retraining principles on smoking cessation and relapse prevention by randomly assigning smokers ready to quit to an attentional attentional retraining condition(focusing on implicit cognition change) or a control condition. Follow-up assessments will be held 6 and 12 months after baseline. Self-reports will be validated.